Devauntay Ellis springs Ewing against Bordentown

Ewing's Devauntay Ellis led all rushers Friday with 218 yards against Bordentown. Ewing won, 32-19. (For The Trentonian/ JOHN BLAINE)

EWING — Devauntay Ellistook the ball on Ewing High’s first play from scrimmage and turned on his track-star speed.

Seventy-three yards later he was in the end zone.

That score set the tone for a 32-19 Blue Devils win against Bordentown on Friday night as Ewing snapped a three-game losing streak with an important West Jersey Football League Liberty Division victory.

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“I ran through the first (tackle), broke the second one and used my track speed,” said Ellis, who finished with 218 yards on 23 carries. “It was gone from there.”

The senior running back finished with two scores, plunging in from 2 yards out in the fourth quarter after Tyler Julious set the offense up with a 44-yard punt return.

Quarterback Vandy Hall (10 rushes for 56 yards) also ran in a pair of second-half touchdowns.

“Our guys stayed committed through the week and we felt as good as we possibly could have after that Lawrence game,” Blue Devils coach Drew Besler said. “When we put things together, we are a very good football team.”

Ewing improved to 2-3 overall and 2-1 in the WJFL Liberty. It has an opening-day win against division leader Cinnaminson but then suffered two blowout losses before pushing Lawrence for three quarters.

Bordentown fell to 2-2 and 1-2 in the division.

Tommy Walters, a tough runner for a 5-foot-6 running back, led the Scotties with 187 yards on 26 carries and a touchdown.

Jahmire VanKline scored twice and picked up 168 yards on the ground.

Despite chewing up room on the ground, Bordentown couldn’t muster anything through the air.

Quarterback Austin Pinkerton completed only one of 16 passes, and that went for negative yardage.

Julious returned a punt 16 yards, setting Ewing up at the Bordentown 22-yard line late in the first quarter. That resulted in a 7-yard score for Savon Brittingham that made it 13-0 for Ewing.

“I don’t know what was in me,” said Julious, who set up two touchdowns with nice punt returns. “I just felt it. I was just trying to help my team out.”

Bordentown was twice stopped on fourth down deep in Ewing territory but eventually got on the board when VanKline scored on a 12-yard run in the second quarter.

The Blue Devils marched it 80 yards on their first possession of the third quarter, capped by Hall’s 13-yard scamper, making it 20-7.

Hall went in again in the fourth quarter, this time from 42 yards. The score had the Ewing faithful feeling a victory.

The Scotties answered when VanKline broke a 59-yard touchdown run that cut it to 26-13 with 6:40 remaining in the game.

Ellis took advantage of Julious’ long punt return to drive in the final nail, diving in from 2 yards out.

Besler tried to let Julious finish it with a run on first down, but he was stopped for a 1-yard loss.

And that meant time to call on Ellis.

“Devauntay Ellis is a pure athlete,” Besler said. “The kid works extremely hard and once he gets in that open field, he’s gone. He has that big play capability. That’s the one thing our offense was really lacking and he’s really come on.”

The Blue Devils travel to New Egypt next week with an opportunity to return to .500.

“Our team is resilient,” Ellis said.

“Hopefully we just go through the rest of the season and lose no more games,” Julious said. “Just like today.”

Bordentown (2-2) 0 7 0 12 — 19

Ewing (2-3) 13 0 7 12 — 32

E- Ellis 73 run (Ficci kick)

E- Brittingham 7 run (kick failed)

B- VanKline 12 run (Walters kick)

E- Hall 13 run (Ficci kick)

E- Hall 42 run (kick blocked)

B- VanKline 59 run (kick failed)

E- Ellis 2 run (kick failed)

B- Walters 27 run (no pat, end of game)

About the Author

Kyle Franko covers college and high school sports at the Trentonian. He is a Rutgers grad, avid football -- the European variety -- fan and part-time pick-up basketball player. Reach the author at kfranko@trentonian.com
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